NICK Knight led Warwickshire into action against Lancashire at Blackpool today determined to help the Bears add another high point to a season which has brought more than its share of lows.

NICK Knight led Warwickshire into action against Lancashire at Blackpool today determined to help the Bears add another high point to a season which has brought more than its share of lows.

In his penultimate championship game before retiring, former skipper Knight finds himself back in charge due to Heath Streak's back injury.

Against title-chasing Lancashire, Knight is charged with rebooting the Bears after their bizarrely mixed summer took another negative turn last week with heavy defeats - and very poor displays - in both four-day and one-day cricket, to Durham and Essex respectively.

The double whammy punctured the momentum that Warwickshire had built with three successive championship wins.

That burst of success suggested there is a bit to work with at Edgbaston after Knight departs. And that delighted the 36-year-old who insists the bigger picture is what matters most to him.

"Of course I'd love to finish with some big runs - and a century at Blackpool would be very nice," Knight said. "But I would swap going out like that for something more important.

"It's very important for me to retire knowing that Warwick-shire are well-placed for next season and likely to be up where they should be, challenging for trophies. So I was pleased the season picked up for us in the championship.

"Personally, it still doesn't seem like it's going to end really. The guys keep saying to me that this is my last match here or there but when games come thick and fast you don't have time to concentrate on anything but them.

"It won't really kick in until the last game against Kent. That will be pretty emotional - I've spent all my cricketing life at Warwickshire really. I started out at Essex but Warwickshire is where it all really took off."

And soon it will all end - and, in competitive terms, for good, reckons Knight.

"I won't play any more serious cricket," he said. "I don't think my game is suited to club cricket - the way I play is probably suited to the ball coming down at 80 or 90 miles per hour. I'll also have quite a lot of Sky commitments."